X-COM: UFO Defense (UFO: Enemy Unknown)

X-COM: UFO Defense (released in Europe as UFO: Enemy Unknown) distills the 1990s UFO craze into a two-tier strategy game. On the strategic 'Geoscape' you scramble interceptors to shoot down incoming saucers; the game then drops to a turn-based tactical layer where a squad sweeps a crashed or landed disc. Downed craft and alien corpses are hauled back to base, where you autopsy the greys, interrogate captives and reverse-engineer plasma weapons and new craft^[1]. The alien vessels are overwhelmingly classic disc shapes, from tiny scouts to vast battleships, echoing the most enduring popular image of the 'flying saucer.' Its real innovation: you are not the witness but the government body tasked with cleaning up the crash and hiding the truth.